Archive for the ‘Wonder that is India’ Category

Some thingummy claims Saibaba (of Shirdi) is no god and exhorts all not to worship Him… that foolish guy doesn’t know that Saibaba never claimed Himself to be a god or godman and he never hankered after solemn prayers from His followers and devotees. He lived a life of total simplicity, modesty, restraint and integrity with a complete down to earth personality.

He is a great sage, seer, mystic, healer, philosopher, spiritual master and social reformer and above all ‘the most graceful and the most benevolent beggar (fakeer)’, who always begged for the sins of his loved ones just to absolve them of all their sins and the consequent divine retributions as per the ‘universal cosmic law of karma’.

Saibaba may not be a god but He goes beyond all the realm(s) of god and godhood. He is a perfect form of LOVE, which is beyond the limits of ordinary human understanding, but strikingly within everyone’s (for that matter, every creature’s) shortest reach to be felt and experienced!

Saibaba was/is never a physical form, nor even a subtle form. He is the ‘Universal Soul’ and the ‘COSMOS’ which permeates all through the universe, both visible and invisible; palpable and impalpable.

Saibaba is Sarva vyaapi and Sarvaantaryaami which means He is all pervasive and not bound by any restrictions or constrictions of time, space and causation. He is neither male nor female and both at the same time; He doesn’t have a beginning nor an end and nor is He in the middle; He is in all and all are in Him, He is in me, you and in all including in that thingummy!

So now tell me, who is worshiping whom?

Praying to Saibaba is nothing but praying and invoking ‘the universal cosmic soul & the super consciousness’ which has been there inside all of us including in that thingummy since time eternal!

Sometimes some fools accidentally and surprisingly be a strong reason in the revelation of the ‘eternal truth’ in their own peculiar and ironical ways though they themselves are not aware of it!

I feel this small bitter episode is just a serendipitous one that prompts us to delve more into the Sai tattva, the essence of Sai!

‘Truth’ is always harsh and bitter, and can be sweet for those who accept it wholeheartedly. There are some fools amidst us who have been taking shelter under ‘falsehood’ for ages in utter disregard to ‘the all mighty truth’. Those hard core morons will definitely have to pay the price sooner or later for their historical blunders of non-compliance with the truth which is eternally supreme and permeates all through the universe going beyond time and keeping a constant watch on all our thoughts, words and deeds.

Any normal and sensible human being initially starts his/her journey of life with physical plane and later on, takes up intellectual and eventually moves to spiritual by the various lessons they learn from their interaction with the world and the experiences they have through it. All men/women differ in their level of mental caliber and in their power of discrimination and that’s the reason why they drastically differ from one another in terms of the time span they take in order to elevate themselves.

There are some who totally discard both their material longing and intellectual prowess after reaching the highest state of spirituality.

There are some intellectuals for whom spirituality is a total abhorrence and always strive with their intellectual prowess for material enrichment and expansion, and derive satisfaction from it.

Still there are some for whom both intellectual and spiritual planes are total anathema to their perception of life and drag on their lives only through their physical plane and find their own happiness out of it, and can’t dare to think beyond and never dream of more brightful world.

My head gets dizzy when I contemplate on such things as,

why only spiritual at the cost of physical and intellectual?,

why only intellectual at the cost of physical and spiritual?, and

why only physical at the cost of intellectual and spiritual?, and

how can all these be made into a perfect blend?

Being raised in an environment of the highest ideals and healthy discussions of the pure Guru-shishya parampara/tradition, I got myself initiated into the spiritual path at quite an early age not because of some external didactic or hypnotic or indoctrinating influences, but purely on the basis of my subconscious affinity with the greatest tradition of the world/universe which is found only in India in its purest and heightened form. So I commenced my life’s journey when I started feeling (with) my conscience, through the spiritual plane unlike those of my age who enjoyed in/through their physical consciousness. It was a big struggle for me to come down (or may be going up (as per the material standards), as I couldn’t exactly make out) from my spiritual consciousness to the pure physical passion and from there ascending up to the intellectual heights.

Let me be more candid and emphatic here, I’ve seen men/women of the highest order and yet with down-to-earth perception of life, from whom I started getting solace for my ever inquisitive and impatient mind which had always been struggling to find out the way through which all the planes that our mind perceives can be fully compensated with one another and be struck a proper balance. I bow my head to those greatest souls I have practically seen, for whom all the planes, physical, intellectual and spiritual are strikingly equal and they never showed the smallest of the small difference or discrimination among them throughout their life time. Moving from one plane to another, for example, from physical to intellectual and from there to spiritual and vice versa, and from spiritual to suddenly physical is a child’s play for them. They carry the most primordial self which they are very much aware of, in their ordinary human bodies like ours and can make it resonate at will, with the ordinary selves (self or soul always is one. The difference as we see is only through our perception or the level of awareness, and this perception differs from one person to other because of the surrounding layers of the strong mental impressions born out of our experiences of physical interaction with the world both outside and inside) of ours. Blessed are those who have reached the highest spiritual state and yet retained their childlike innocence. Intellectuality is never a conscious attempt for them, it’s rather a free flow without any cognitive or contemplative brooding and analysis.

I always make it a point to visit such noble souls whenever I go to a new place and try to get connected with them spiritually through my physical interaction of touching my head to their lotus feet and the holy sandals.

We are all totally misinformed and misguided by the modern pseudo-intellectuals of our society that spiritualism is only for those who totally renounce materialism, and by some spiritual quacks that spirituality is to be attained by compromising our intellectual reasoning and analysis. These are far from truth and sheer baseless arguments.

Spirituality without going through the litmus test of intellectual reasoning and analysis can never survive and the intellectuality without spiritual motivation cannot stand. It’ll collapse like a big house of cards at the slightest disturbance.

Intellectuality is to make our material life pragmatic and sensible and spirituality is to make it meaningful and insightful. Material is to manifest the both!

Being in a state of equanimity, and enduring whatever come, whether it is hot or cold, good or bad, praise or criticism, is tapasya (penance or austerities).

The universe is in one body. You see the sun, moon, stars, mountains, trees but you don’t see GOD, which is the life of the whole universe.

India was/is never one! There have always been multitude of Indias within one India. See for yourself which India you belong to, which platform you’re on and which banner you have been carrying- Race, Region, Colour, Religion, Sect, Caste, Creed, Class, Culture, Language or Gender, Theism, Atheism or Pantheism or Humanism, etc. But still, there has been some underlying cosmic influence/force that has been working on quite surreptitiously to bind us all together in our long march towards our destiny!

Myriad are all our ways but there has to be a common melting point where there is a healthy coalescence and confluence of all the different ideas/schools of thought! Utopia far-fetched!?

A perfect blend of proper English education with global perspective and time tested Indian cultural and traditional values will go a long way in making our country the most beautiful and enchanting place on our planet earth! What present Indian youth need is western scientific education coupled with Indian vedantic tradition as Swami Vivekananda points out.

India is always incredible and it never ceases me to marvel at it for its magnificence, and tenacious resilience and coherence for ages!

Many a people see India as enigmatic but I see it as magnetic, hypnotic and charismatic!!

About East vs. West, I should rather say India vs. West, I regret to say that it has been ingrained in us Indians that everything that is Indian (or Eastern) as the best and superior in comparison with that of the West because of the contemporary phenomena of the influx of the West towards the East, especially towards India for wisdom and enlightenment. This should never be the reason for boasting about the greatness of India, especially in the aftermath of the globalization and as a result of it, the cross cultural encounters. Of course India is very rich in its traditions, cultural heritage, and strong and solid institutions such as family, marriage and social value systems, but we cannot deny the fact that it has its own loopholes accumulated in course of its long historical march! There should not be any doubt that India is like the mother for all the nations with different racial backgrounds. It’s quite common that the children automatically get attracted towards their MOTHER, and the mother never feels so great about this, and rather shows her overwhelmingly pure joy, love and affection towards her sons and daughters who were lost in the vast ocean of time!